Introduction

Welcome to the Department of Pharmacology in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands Institute of Medical Sciences (ANIIMS) Port Blair. Our Department is devoted to research, training, and education and strives to push the boundaries of scientific discovery and academic development.

The broad goal of teaching pharmacology to undergraduate students is to inculcate in them a rational and scientific basis of therapeutics. The overall objective of the department is to provide the minimum essential knowledge in pharmacology that every medical must have prior to entering the clinical years of education. With the fund of knowledge gained through this course students should be prepared to approach pharmacotherapy as it applies to the practice of medicine in a rational manner and gain the requisite tools to continue to expand their knowledge in pharmacology as they advance in their clinical training.

Educational objectives

(a) Knowledge

At the end of the course, the student shall be able to -

i. Describe the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of essential and commonly used drugs

ii. List the indications, contraindications, interactions and adverse reactions of commonly used drugs

iii. Indicate the use of appropriate drug in a particular disease with consideration of its cost, efficacy and safety for -

individual needs, and

mass therapy under national health programmes

iv. Describe the pharmacokinetic basis, clinical presentation, diagnosis and management of common poisonings

v. Integrate the list the drugs of addiction and recommend the management

vi. Classify environmental and occupational pollutants and state the management issues

vii. Explain pharmacological basis of prescribing drugs in special medical situations such as pregnancy, lactation, infancy and old age

v. Be well-conversant with the principles of pharmacy and dispense the medications giving proper instructions

(c) Integration

Practical knowledge of rational use of drugs in clinical practice will be acquired through integrated teaching vertically with pre-clinical & clinical subjects and horizontally with other para-clinical subjects.

To carry out research activities are pertaining to herbal research and drug screening.

To set up world class therapeutic drug monitoring laboratory for estimation of plasma concentration of drugs with narrow therapeutic index.

To conduct guest lectures on newer developments in pharmacology and toxicology, ethical issues in clinical research and to sensitize undergraduates, nursing and clinical staff of the hospital about the reporting of the suspected adverse drug reactions.

To promote undergraduate short term research projects.

To develop pharmacology museum, which includes various models of receptors, routes of administration and mechanism of action of various drugs, flex charts on drug induced congenital disorders and adverse drug reaction charts.